Falling Crude Prices Lift Dow

Falling crude oil prices and consumer prices lifted the Dow 65 points to 7985 during the midday while Nasdaq lost 9 points to 1616.

On the upside

Discovery Laboratories (Nasdaq: DSCO) reported that it has advanced the design of its proprietary Capillary Aerosolization Technology for delivering aerosolized KL4 surfactant to the deep lung.

Developers Diversified Realty's (NYSE: DDR) shareholders approved the purchase agreement with the Otto Family.

American Airlines parent AMR (NYSE: AMR) widened first quarter losses as people flew less due to the weak economy but the results topped analyst estimates.

On the downside

Raymond James Financial (NYSE: RJF) warned that second quarter earnings will fall far short of expectations as loan loss provisions soared.

Burger King Holdings (NYSE: BKC) disappointed with lower than expected preliminary revenue for the third quarter.

Although first quarter earnings for Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) tripled, the results missed analyst estimates by a wide margin.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by more than 7 to 5 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks gained 5 points to 458.